A response to this post:
https://pipersadventures.blog/2021/10/05/facing-a-fearful-fall
I love this rhyming anecdote and the perspective of meeting the end with humor. I have to say that I didn't react with humor either time that I was looking the grim reaper in the eye. On one occasion, I was angry and swore to come back and haunt the driver coming up my tail way too fast for me to react. (These thoughts occurred in the space of about 3 seconds.) Obviously, the jackass swerved at the last minute or I wouldn't be here to say this.
When a wave of water slammed into my car during a flood, I felt one moment of abject terror, and then I went into shock. I managed to brazen my way through, but I had PTSD following the event.
If you'd like to see my response to the above photo, sashay on over here.
https://poetryofthenetherworld.blogspot.com/2021/10/helloween-2021-day-666-two-perspectives.html
In other thoughts, if any of you have ever wondered why disabled people tend to shut themselves off from the world, wonder no longer. I can't speak for anyone else, but I am certainly tired of being treated like a retarded child, getting pep talks, having people ask me if I'm okay when I'm just fucking sitting there looking at the sky and trying to figure out what to make for dinner, having people offer me rides when I'm just trying to take the fucking walk that I'm told I should take more and longer of because I'm too fat (probably according to the same people), and having people talk about nothing but my fucking disability or my fucking mobility aid. It makes me really fucking grouchy.
"But how should I talk to disabled people, Ornery? I mean, they're special and handicapable and all that!"
If I am special (an idea that I find questionable) it certainly isn't because my back and endocrine system are fucked beyond repair. And if anybody ever uses the term "handicapable" in my presence, I will hulk out and drop a car on them. I much prefer the term "disabled, not incapable."
I'm thinking about having a snarky bumper sticker made to put on my walker. Something like "I'm just taking a walk," or "not dead yet," or "disabled, not incapable." What I'd really like is a bumper sticker that says "fuck off," but I think that's probably a bit confrontational.
Ornery Owl is...
I hear you. My disability is part of me. It isn't all of me. Not yet.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's sure as hell the one damn thing that everyone notices. I wish they'd just go ahead and talk to the walker because it isn't me they're talking to.
DeleteI doubt if I'd get this much attention if I used a cane, but I tried that and I didn't like it. The upright walker keeps my back straight.
I guess at least the one nosey parker that I try to avoid (I hid behind a bush one day when I saw her coming) asks me things like what I do, then proceeds to ask me if I'm good at it. Hell if I know. I get paid for it (the book reviews) so I guess I do an acceptable job. She also loves to note that "the red car is still in front of your house."
Yes, that would denote that my housemate is still here. Unfortunately. He should be gone Friday. MYOB.
This person is probably bored, but I don't have it in me to alleviate her boredom. She's around my mother's age. When my mother gets bored, she goes shopping. She has a fine arts degree. I wish she'd take up painting again.